Thursday, March 13, 2008

1970's Flashback: Star-Lord

Star-Lord (Peter Quill) debuted in Marvel Preview #4 (January 1976) by writer Steve Englehart and artist Steve Gan, although the character underwent a slight “tweak” in issue #11, by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne.

Peter Jason Quill was born February 4th, 1962, during an unusual astronomical phenomenon where Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Mercury, Venus and the Moon aligned in formation. On the night of his birth, Peter's father angrily accused his wife of infidelity, as the baby resembled neither of them. He attempted to kill the infant with an axe, but was struck down by a heart attack, leaving the child to stare for over an hour into a starry sky.

The latter story (#11) confirmed that Peter's father was correct, as his true father was Jason of Spartax, the young son of a galactic Emperor who had acted as Star-Lord before him. Jason had crash-landed on Earth years before and fathered the child before repairing his ship and returning home in response to an urgent distress call. He had erased the memory of Peter’s mother upon leaving Earth, and returned only to find that she had married her childhood sweetheart, and thus chose not to interfere. It was revealed that the alien who murdered Meredith Quill was a reptilian bodyguard sent by Jason's uncle to wipe out young Peter, the heir to the Galactic Throne. Peter killed both the alien and the uncle who had intended to overthrow his father, but chose not to remain with his newfound parent, instead wandering the stars with his sentient star-craft called, Ship.

As Star-Lord, Peter Quill possesses augmented strength and resiliency and controls an "Element Gun", a special meta-pistol capable of conjuring one of the four elements. He is able to travel unaided through space with his face uncovered, indicating that he either does not need oxygen, or that he or his uniform generates its own oxygen. Peter is also psychically linked to his starship, which is a living entity.

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!